Page "Population transfer" Paragraph 5

The view of international law on population transfer underwent considerable evolution during the 20th century.

Prior to World War II, a number of major population transfers were the result of bilateral treaties and had the support of international bodies such as the League of Nations.

Even the expulsion of Germans from central and eastern Europe after World War II was apparently sanctioned in article 13 of the Potsdam communiqué, although research has shown that both the British and the American delegations at Potsdam strongly objected to the size of the population transfer that had already taken place and was accelerating in the summer of 1945.

The principal drafter of this provision, Sir Geoffrey Harrison, explained that this article was not intended to approve the expulsions but to find a way to transfer the competence to the Control Council in Berlin so as to regulate the flow.

The tide started to turn when the Charter of the Nuremberg Trials of German Nazi leaders declared forced deportation of civilian populations to be both a war crime and a crime against humanity, and this opinion was progressively adopted and extended through the remainder of the century.

Underlying the change was the trend to assign rights to individuals, thereby limiting the rights of states to make agreements which adversely affect them.